The HSE has blockbooked Dublin’s Citywest Hotel as a coronavirus care centre right up until the end of the year.
The health service revealed today that it booked out the hotel near Saggart for the next SEVEN months.
The sprawling 750 bedroom hotel and conference centre near Saggart in south Dublin has been turned into a 'self-isolation and step down facility’ since the end of last month.
In the HSE’s weekly covid operational briefing today, the agency disclosed that they have block booked the 1,100 bed tourist accommodation provider right up until the end of 2020.
The complex has been transformed into a COVID care centre for four categories of people:
- Those who are unable to self isolate at home
- Those who display no symptoms of coronavirus
- Those showing mild symptoms awaiting COVID test results
- Those who have tested positive but have mild symptoms
The fact that the HSE has block booked the facility right up until the end of the year shows that the Government does not see the crisis ending anytime soon.
When it was unveiled as the country’s first major coronavirus isolation facility at the end of March, HSE chief Paul Reid said that it would not be used for anyone needing critical or acute care.
"The whole hotel, the whole campus, will be set out in different zones,” Mr Reid said.
‘Referrals to this facility will have come through a GP or other healthcare processes.
‘There will be dedicated exercise areas for various people and groupings."
Apart from the self isolating centre, an overflow or ‘step-down’ care those who are recovering from COVID-19 but still aren't well enough to go home.
